Greg’s weblog

Superman came to visit, but William missed him by a few seconds…

A while back, we had some consultants from India come over (for about 7 weeks) and do some work. I was working with them sort of indirectly – I was the guy who put a pretty front end on their back end work. Anyway, they were pretty good guys, and knew their stuff pretty well, so when I was asked my opinion, that’s what I said. We’ve had some bad consultants, and some good ones. Projects always go a lot more smoothly when there are good consultants involved.

Anyway, one of the Indian consultants is back in town – actually has been for a couple of weeks now. On Tuesday, he came and gave me a gift from his area, which is apparently known for their handicrafts. It’s a soapstone(?) carved elephant with all kinds of sparklies inlaid into it in very fancy patterns. I put it on a shelf near the entrance to my office/cube, and it successfully distracts anyone coming to ask me questions. :-) It’s quite a nice gift, and was completely unexpected. Apparently he brought a bunch of gifts – all different – for various people who he worked with.

There’s an ultimate tournament tomorrow, and I was planning on playing, but the weather looks like it’s going to be nasty. I’m a wimp, so I probably won’t go. The Riders game is on tomorrow night anyway, so I’m going to have to make sure I watch that…

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Conserve your precious hatred for the game!” – Apu

I’ve been talking a lot of politics lately. I don’t know why, but I’ve been drawn towards politics. Maybe it’s because we had such an interesting civic election, and the provincial election is just around the corner.

I have a lot of ideas about how things should be, and why things are they way they are. A platform so to speak. The thing is that I’m not right wing, and I’m not left wing. I’m also not center, defence, or goalie. While politics in some places has turned into a sport – us vs. them – it doesn’t matter what my party’s platform is, or how much sense the other guys might make, they’re “them” so we have to defeat them. Truth be told, my views would be considered pretty right wing on some topics, and very left wing on others. Still other issues, I’d be labled as a moderate, or a liberal (note the small l.)

Where does that leave me?

Well, basically when I vote for a party in the provincial election, a large part of their platform will be distasteful to me. Regardless of which party I vote for. I’m sure this is true of a lot of people, but it’s almost a revelation to me this time around. I can see why negative campaigning works so well, since it’s not who you want to vote for so much as who you don’t want to vote for. The lesser of two evils and all that. All I ask is that those who choose politics put the interests of their constituency ahead of their own interests in getting re-elected. Maybe I’m just getting old, and jaded, but I don’t think that any successful polititian can actually do that anymore, without getting trounced by the career polititians.

Look at what Ross Perot tried to do a few elections back down South – I’m not saying that I agreed with his policies or whatever, but truthfully, he was running because he wanted to take the country in a new direction. He didn’t seem to be running just to further his political career. He did it out of love for his country, not self interest.

I’m not sure what I’m saying, but I think most polititians as a group are in politics for the wrong reason. A lot of it looks like petty bickering and “my sport team is better than your sports team” type of crap. There’s a place for that, and I think that public office isn’t it.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “It makes no difference which one of us you vote for. Either way, your planet is doomed. DOOMED!” – Kang

Well, you take 12 days off, and stuff happens.

William crawls now, and he’s become a cruiser. In fact, William crawled his first crawl the day after my last post. As a result, our livingroom is much more babyproof (and clean) than it had been in a long while. He laughs a lot more now than he did before – sometimes he starts up on this maniacal trilling laugh that gets me going. He really likes reading books with his parents, and rarely tries to eat them before they’re done – his favorite book is the Polar Hide and Seek book – he likes the whale page the best.

So, William is keeping us busy and entertained lately. With Halloween coming up soon, we’re trying to come up with a good costume idea for him. He’ll probably only visit two houses, but it’s the principle of the thing.

Oh, and hockey season started up, which is always a good thing. Montreal is even leading the league for the time being…

Simpson’s quote of the day: “When a fire starts to burn, there’s a lesson you must learn, something, something, then you’ll see, you’ll avoid catastrophe! …Doh!” – Homer

I’m taking the next six days off from work. This means that I won’t be back at work until October 20th. This also means that I’ll probably post either more or less. Maybe about the same amount. Who can say.

This weekend we’re heading out to Manitoba for the regular Thanksgiving gathering. In addition, my grandma is having an auction sale, and moving out of her house, and into an apartment. Should be a pretty busy weekend, anyway. It will be interesting, as there will be three babies under a year old, and two of my cousins are pregnant.

Oh, and I finished categorizing most of the pictures that are on the laptop. It wasn’t actually that hard. Next step is to categorize the pictures from before the laptop (which includes a bunch of weddings and stuff)

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Principal Skinner, I just got car sick in your office.” – (the aptly named) Ralph

So, what are you going to dress up as for Hallowe’en

The costumes from that link are some of the worst costumes ever. Any time you have to have the name of your costume (and a picture) on the front of it, so people can tell who you are supposed to be, just rethink the whole idea. Maybe you’re better off just going to the grocery store and buying your own candy.

Of course, now they’re so bad that they’re cool again.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Hey, jerkface! You have the face of a jerk!” – Bart